You've all waited patiently for the climatic ending of this case file, and here it is! Grab a coffee, and enjoy the conclusion to The Case Of The Lucrative Lure.

It was so quiet in the office that I could hear my own pulse. Creepy. Dana was standing in front of her desk with her hands outstretched. Laying perfectly center across her palms was a single black VHS videotape. "I came in here with Nevits to retrieve this, and get the hell out of here." Dana said with a quick glance at her companion. I cleared my throat. "Dana, can I ask who Nevits is and why he's here?" "I'm a PI." Nevits said, beating Dana to the punch. "He's a mathematical symbol?" Scrap joked under his breath, making fun of Nevit's mispronunciation. "Okay, you're a private investigator. Why are you here with Dana?" I queried as I sat down on a nearby desk. "Dana here had a little problem with her boss, so I snuck in here with her last week and rigged up a camera." Nevits said as he pointed to the ceiling. "We came in tonight to yank the tape." Mark walked towards me and sat next to me on the desk. "Dana, from the beginning... let's hear your story." Dana seemed very uncomfortable, but replayed her story nonetheless. "This whole mess started right after I started working here. Mike took a liking to me right away and asked me out. I know it's not a smart idea to go out on dates with your boss, but he was very charming." Mark was cringing and rolling his eyes. Dana continued. "Mike and I were dating for quite a while, and became very comfortable with each other. One day during a reconciliation I noticed some strange transactions in the accounting software. I hadn't entered them, and neither had Susan. I asked Mike about them and he told me not to worry about them and just make things balance. When I told him that I needed the invoices for the entries, he got upset at me. The next day, invoices magically appeared on my desk. This went on for quite a while... me having to remind Mike about missing invoices and such. Then, things got very complicated." I was taking notes so fast that my paw was aching. I made a mental note to bring my digital voice recorder next time. "Dana, what do you mean 'things got very complicated'?" Mark asked. "I discovered that I was pregnant. I wanted the baby, Mike did not and was very adamant about me terminating my pregnancy. I couldn't do it! Mike became very angry with me and started to threaten me and my job. It got so bad that I had to take a leave of absence... and then they didn't want to pay me my vacation. While on my sick leave I told Mike during a few late night phone calls that I wasn't coming back to work and I wasn't terminating my pregnancy. It was then that he threatened to call the police because he had evidence that I had been stealing thousands of dollars from the company. I almost died! I knew that Mike had been paying fake invoices for quite a while, but I was afraid to say anything. I'm sorry Mark. I thought you were in on it too." Dana lamented. Mark was very quiet. I knew that silence well. It was like showing up at Starbucks two minutes after closing time. "Chief, let's see what's on that tape." Scrap suggested as he reached for the video tape in Dana's hand. I nodded, and Scrap walked back towards the wiring closet with the tape in his paw. A few seconds later, Scrap and I watched a pixelated video of Mike entering transactions into the accounting software and then printing checks. The video was time and date stamped, and the logo on the invoices was easy to make out. I flipped back to my notes from the examination of Dana's workstation and looked at the FTK dump of the accounting system's database. The times matched. "It's all there." I said to Mark as I walked back towards Dana's cube. Mark sighed. "Dana, I'm really sorry about this. I want you to know that nobody is going to call the police on you. I'm going to deal with Mike personally, and I'm going to call you tomorrow to work out a severance package that is fair. Will that work?" Dana had tears swelling up in her eyes, and exhaled loudly like a huge burden had been taken from her. "That would be great Mark. I'm really tired and I think I need to rest." Dana said as she reached into her purse and retrieved a small white envelope. The contents were quickly examined, and the envelope handed to Nevits who repeated the examination. Looks like Nevits was getting paid for his work. Nevits escorted Dana from the office leaving Scrap, Mark and myself staring at each other. "Chief, Scrap, I can't thank you enough for helping me out on this. I just knew that you'd figure this out. I guess I need to start preparing myself for a very painful discussion with my brother tomorrow." Mark said. "With your brother controlling the funds around here, we're still getting paid, right?" I joked. Mark chuckled. "Of course. Man, this story is right out of a daytime drama show. I'm pretty sure after I talk to my brother tomorrow that MMM will be history. " "If previous cases have taught me anything, it would be that your intuition is right on the money (no pun intended)." I said. "When you see your brother tomorrow and he asks how the investigation is going, tell him one thing for me, will you?" "Anything." Mark said. "What?" I slowly removed my chimp behind from the desk that I had been sitting on and looked Mark in the eyes. "Tell him that the case was a slam dunk." Questions: What was the 'lucrative lure'? How did I know early on that Mike was the center of the entire investigation? Post your comments/questions! Chief

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Security Monkey is an expert investigator of computer crime for businesses small and large. His background includes military and federal experience in intelligence, electronic countermeasures, and signal and information interception.